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Ver: Version: 17.1
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Documentation Altium Designer Documentation ... Dialog Reference M to R

Note

Created: June 09, 2017 | Updated: June 18, 2017 | Applies to version: 17.1

This document is no longer available beyond version 17.1. Information can now be found here: Note Properties for version 25

The Note dialog.

Summary

This dialog allows the designer to specify the properties of a Note object. A note is a non-electrical drawing primitive. It is used to add informative or instructional text to a specific area within a schematic, in a similar vein to that of commenting a program's source code. The note is a resizable rectangular area that can contain multiple lines of text and can automatically wrap and clip text to keep it within the bounds of the note.

For information on how a placed note object can be modified graphically, directly in the workspace, see Graphical Editing.

Access

The Note dialog can be accessed prior to entering placement mode, from the Schematic – Default Primitives page of the Preferences dialog. This allows the default properties for the note object to be changed, which will be applied when placing subsequent notes.

During placement, the dialog can be accessed by pressing the Tab key.

While attributes can be modified during placement, bear in mind that these will become the default settings for further placement unless the Permanent option on the Schematic – Default Primitives page of the Preferences dialog is enabled. When this option is enabled, changes made will affect only the object being placed and subsequent objects placed during the same placement session.

After placement, the dialog can be accessed in one of the following ways:

  • Double-clicking on the placed note object.
  • Placing the cursor over the note object, right-clicking and choosing Properties from the context menu.
  • Using the Edit » Change command and clicking once over the placed note object.

Options/Controls

  • Text Color - click the color sample to change the color used for the actual text entered into the note, using the standard Choose Color dialog.
  • Alignment - specifies the alignment of the text contained within the note. Choose from Center, Left, and Right alignment.
  • Location X1/Y1 - the current X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) coordinates for the bottom-left corner of the note. Edit these values to change the position of this corner in the horizontal and/or vertical planes respectively.
  • Location X2/Y2 - the current X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) coordinates for the top-right corner of the note. Edit these values to change the position of this corner in the horizontal and/or vertical planes respectively.
  • Border Color - click the color sample to change the color used for the border around the note, using the standard Choose Color dialog.
  • Fill Color - click the color sample to change the fill color for the note, using the standard Choose Color dialog.
  • Text Margin - the amount of space (padding) between the text and the note border. The value specified applies equally to Left, Top, Right and Bottom margins for the note.
To benefit from the text margin functionality within the area of the note, ensure that the Clip to Area option is enabled. Ideally, the Word Wrap option should also be enabled.
Negative margins are also possible, using the minus prefix (-).

Properties

  • Author - use this field to enter the name of the person writing the note.
  • Text - click the Change button associated to this field to access the Note Text dialog, from where text for the note can be entered as required.
  • Font - this control serves two purposes. Firstly, it reflects the currently chosen font – applied to the text entered within the note - in terms of Font Name, Font Size and Font Style. Secondly, when clicked it provides access to the standard Font dialog, from where to change the font as required.
Effects are also displayed when enabled (Strikeout, Underline). If Regular is used for the font's style, this will not be displayed visually in the control's string.
  • Collapsed - enable this option to display the note in collapsed (small triangle) mode. Disable this option to display the note in expanded (full frame) mode.
  • Word Wrap - enable this option to have the text within the note area automatically wrap to fit the width of the note.
  • Clip to Area - this option comes into play if word wrapping is disabled. With this option enabled, text will be kept within the bounds of the note. When disabled, text will spill out of the note onto the schematic sheet.
  • Locked - enable this option to protect the note from being edited graphically.
If attempting to graphically modify an object that has its Locked property enabled, a dialog will appear asking for confirmation to proceed with the edit. If the Protect Locked Objects option is enabled on the Schematic – Graphical Editing page of the Preferences dialog, and the Locked option for that design object is enabled as well, then that object cannot be selected or graphically edited. Double click on the locked object directly and disable the Locked property, or disable the Protect Locked Objects option, to graphically edit the object.

 

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Note

The features available depend on your Altium product access level. Compare features included in the various levels of Altium Designer Software Subscription and functionality delivered through applications provided by the Altium 365 platform.

If you don’t see a discussed feature in your software, contact Altium Sales to find out more.